


Almost

by NoOneKnowsIWriteThis



Category: Silent Hill (Video Game Series)
Genre: Domestic, Don't get too attached to your Replacement Goldfish James, Dramatic Irony, F/M, Maria Ending (Silent Hill), Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Slight James/Mary implications, There's sex but it's brief, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:49:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22140574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoOneKnowsIWriteThis/pseuds/NoOneKnowsIWriteThis
Summary: Maria isn't Mary. Maria is almost Mary. James brought her home. They can sort out the details tomorrow.
Relationships: Maria/James Sunderland
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	Almost

James barely looked at her as he drove out of Silent Hill. Instead he kept his eyes on the road as he absently fiddled with the radio until he finally found a station that wasn’t static. It wasn’t until he parked the car in front of his and Mary’s apartment building that he finally allowed himself to turn toward the passenger’s seat.

Maria was sitting there, watching him with an amused look. James had half expected the seat to be empty and for Maria to have vanished as he’d driven out of that miserable town.

“Well?” Maria prompted. “Are we going to stay in the car all night?”

James shook his head, partially to clear it and partially in answer. He opened the door and stepped out, forgetting to lock the car as he quickly led Maria inside the building and up the stairs. Maria let out an amused huff as James fumbled with his keys until he found the correct one and finally unlocked the door. He ushered her into the apartment, away from the possibility of nosy neighbors with uncomfortable questions.

Maria quickly made herself at home, slipping off her boots and going straight to the cabinet that hid James’s collection of cheap beers and half-decent liquors. She pulled out a bottle of whiskey and turned to him expectantly.

“Drink?” she offered, as if he were the guest.

James hesitated, the memories of too many nights alone with only booze to dull the pain of Mary’s absence loomed large in his mind. But tonight he wouldn’t be drinking alone; Maria was here.

“Sure.” He stepped past her to retrieve a pair of glasses from the cupboard.

They stood at the counter as they sipped at their drinks, each eyeing the other unsurely.

Finally, Maria stepped forward, her hand going to caress James’s arm. “You look tired, James,” she said in a tone that was half consternation and half seduction. “Let’s get you into bed.”

James let her lead him down the hallway to the bedroom. They hesitated at the threshold, Maria looking up at James expectantly. His face drew closed as he considered something for a moment, then his hand went to wrap around the back of Maria’s neck.

“You’re here,” he murmured, more to himself than to her, but she answered back.

“I’m here, James. And I’m as alive and real as you are.”

James let out a quick amused huff before guiding her with the hand at the back of her neck into a kiss. Maria melted against him as James stiffly held her in place. She slid her arms around him and opened her mouth to entice him in. James kissed her eagerly, desperately, and without finesse.

When they broke the kiss, James pulled Maria into the bedroom and pushed the door closed, backing Maria against it and kissed her again, somehow deeper this time. It was like that first kiss had opened a floodgate inside him. Maria pushed the jacket from his shoulders and he let it drop to the ground with a thud. Her hand curled against his cheek as James pulled back.

After a few moments of James just looking at her, Maria softly asked “What do you want, James?”

He blinked, a confused look coming onto his face as he answered. “You, Maria.”

She chuckled as she pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his lips. “I guessed that, silly. I meant what do you want from me? How do you want to do this?”

“O-oh, I…” James awkwardly turned his head to glance in the direction of, but not directly at, the bed. “I didn’t think that far ahead.”

“That’s alright,” Maria purred, stepping forward and guiding him back until the back of his legs hit the bed. Her hand went to his shoulder and pushed him to sit down. “You stay there for now and enjoy.”

As Maria took a step back, her hands slid up her chest to the bottom button of her cardigan. She glanced at James as she began to toy with the button, making sure she had his full attention as she opened her cardigan, revealing a lacy black bra.

James’s adams apple bobbed as he swallowed heavily.

Maria discarded her sweater and slipped off her skirt as well. James’s gaze traced down her body, hesitating briefly before lingering on her legs.

“You… I…” he began helplessly.

“Yes?” Maria prompted with a smirk.

“You’re beautiful,” James managed. His hands curled in the sheets. “I want to touch you...please?”

Maria sauntered over to him, hovering over his lap. “You can touch as much as you like, James,” she promised. “But you have to return the favor.”

He looked up at her dumbly for a moment, then pulled both his shirts off in one smooth motion, tossing them aside. One of his hands wrapped around her thigh, and she cupped his jaw and guided him into a slow, tender kiss as she sank onto his lap. He whined into her mouth.

_ “Maria,” _ he whispered as they pulled apart.

She smiled and rolled her hips, making James gasp.

“Let’s get you out of these jeans.”

Soon enough they were both naked: Maria riding James as he looked up at her in a lust-drunk haze. The desperate, breathy version of her name that James kept repeating was choppy, closer to his dead wife's name followed by a gasp than 'Maria,' but she still smirked down at him each time he attempted it.

Despite his best efforts, James didn't last long.

Maria soon lay down beside him and in the bliss of the afterglow James could almost —  _ almost —  _ pretend that he was lying beside his wife. Her smile was nearly identical. He found himself smiling back at her as his eyes started to slip closed.

“James, honey.” Her voice cut straight through him. It was  _ exactly  _ like Mary’s. “Honey, don’t fall asleep yet.”

Reluctantly, he opened his eyes. Maria wasn’t Mary, no matter how similar they were. The blonde and pink dyed hair that splayed across the pillow beside him was just the clearest difference between the two of them.

“Go take a shower, you need it. I’ll change the sheets while you’re gone.”

James let out a groan, but gave in, standing up and stumbling into the shower, only to be startled by the initial blast of cold water. Once he adjusted the temperature, James took his time, watching the water turn brown and rusty and gray in turns as he cleaned the grime and other remnants of Silent Hill from his body. Once the water had once again turned clear, he switched it off and fumbled around for a towel to dry off with, before returning to the bedroom, the towel wrapped around his waist.

True to her word, Maria had changed the sheets. She'd also found one of his larger, looser shirts and claimed it for her own use; It just barely provided enough coverage for modesty.

She smiled as she crossed over to him. Then she ran a hand through his still-damp hair and kissed his cheek. It would have been too strangely intimate if she weren't so much like Mary.

"I pulled out your pajamas and a fresh set of underwear for you," she murmured, cupping his face with her hand.

It was slightly odd that, despite having traversed through the hellish Silent Hill, like he had, Maria seemed to have been mostly untouched by dirt and grime. In fact, besides her hair being slightly tousled, she didn’t appear disheveled or injured at all; an impressive feat considering James had watched her die before his very eyes. Twice. Plus the one time he'd found her corpse.

He mumbled his thanks and turned away from her as he got dressed. Nevermind that she had already seen him naked earlier, it would have felt too intimate to change in front of a virtual stranger. At some point, Maria scooped up the towel he’d abandoned and returned it to the bathroom. She reappeared as he was getting into the bed, sliding into the other side.

They’d never turned on the light. The lingering natural light had faded away and the room was now dark. In the darkness it was easier than ever for James to see Mary in place of Maria.

Emboldened by the illusion of the familiar, he shuffled closer and slid his arm under the covers, around her waist. Maria drew closer in response, cuddling loosely against his chest. With her so close and no distractions at hand, James could smell her perfume: the same flowery scent Mary had been fond of before her illness took the joy from their lives.

“Goodnight, James,” she said softly.

“Goodnight, honey,” he replied, unsure what name he’d have used otherwise.

**Author's Note:**

> Maria is an interesting figure, basically defined by being a warped copy of Mary. She'll never be able to be sure how much James likes her for where she differs from Mary versus where she's the same.
> 
> The first kernel of this story came to me while listening to "Almost (Sweet Music)" by Hozier. I was especially inspired by the line "I'm almost me again, she's almost you."


End file.
